Able-bodied park pride, use scooters

There's lazy, and then there's Las Vegas lazy.

In increasing numbers, Las Vegas tourists exhausted by the four miles of gluttony laid out before them are getting around on electric "mobility scooters."

Don't think trendy Vespa motorbikes. Think updated wheelchairs.

Forking over about $40 a day and their pride, perfectly healthy tourists are cruising around Las Vegas casinos in transportation intended for the infirm.

You don't have to take a step. You don't even have to put your drink down.

"It was all the walking," 27-year-old Simon Lezama said on his red Merits Pioneer 3.

Lezama, a trim and fit-looking restaurant manager from Odessa, Texas, rented it on day three of his five-day vacation, "and now I can drink and drive, be responsible and save my feet."

The Strip is long past its easily walkable days.

Casinos alone are nearly the size of two football fields. That doesn't count the hotel rooms, shopping malls, spas, convention centers, bars and restaurants.

For tourists who plan to stroll from one big casino to another, there are crowds, construction sites and long stretches of sun-baked sidewalks between.

A tourist could accidentally get some exercise.

"We're seeing more and more young people just for the fact that the Strip has gotten so big, the hotels are so large," said Marcel Maritz, owner of Active Mobility, a scooter rental company whose inventory includes wheelchairs, crutches and walkers.

Most of those using the scooters are obese, elderly or disabled. But many are young and seemingly fit.

Maritz said the number of able-bodied renters has grown in the past few years to represent as much as 5 percent of his business. The company, which contracts with some casinos, has a fleet of about 300 scooters.

"It makes it a lot easier for people to see everything," he said.

At full throttle the scooters can go about 5 mph, though crowded sidewalks allow little opportunity for such speeds. They can go anywhere wheelchairs can but are banned from streets. They come with a quick operating lesson, an instruction booklet, a horn and a basket.

"At first, I figured it was for handicapped people, but then I saw everybody was getting them. I figured I might as well, too," Lezama said.

Las Vegas has other transportation options, although each has its problems.

The Strip is regularly clogged with cabs and drive-in tourists. The Deuce double-decker bus system often gets stuck in the mess. The $650 million monorail with stops at eight casinos has been plagued by poor ridership.

Police and casino workers often use bicycles.

Some find the notion of using a device intended for disabled people unethical.

"It's the same principle as parking in a handicap spot," said Mike Petillo, 64, a disabled tax accountant who recently visited from New York City.

Several hotel bell desk workers, who handle most of the rental requests from tourists, said they try to discourage people who do not appear to need the scooters from renting. But refusing the self-indulgent is not really an option.

"You can't really discriminate against anybody," said Tom Flynn, owner of Universal Mobility. "We don't require a prescription or an explanation of why they need it."

Michelle Bailey, a slender, apparently healthy 22-year-old, used a scooter to get around a recent pool tournament at the Riviera hotel-casino.

"Four-inch heels," she explained with a laugh, pointing to her lipstick-red pumps.

But Troy Burgess, a 21-year-old optician visiting from Detroit, said he considers it "immoral" for an able-bodied person to rent wheels.

And not only that, he said, "You probably wouldn't pick up too many chicks on that scooter."